As part of a new design for the website we are going to be making an offer to some people with a blog to receive free family history research.

If you would like to know about your ancestors, and see records that provide information on their lives, homes, professions, immigration, etc, let us know. We may be able to perform the research in exchange for you writing about what you learned from us, which we will post on this website, and a link to that post from your own website.

If you have never thought about your genealogy before, understand that it is entirely possible for us to uncover specific newspaper articles with fantastic stories including your ancestors, Civil War records, Slave records and much more in the scope of this offer to you.

All interested bloggers should E-mail us via our contact page, and provide us with a link to your blog, as well as the information you already have on your family, to get us started. Hope to hear from you soon.

Another family with Brooklyn roots has written a family history for us to display on the site. Anybody related that finds this page should contact the author directly.

England to New York

Robert and Sophia Osborn were both born in 1799 or 1800. They were both from England. They moved to Wales, had a daughter Mary Ann Osborn on August 21, 1830. The family immigrated to America in 1837. They went to Brooklyn to set up house. When they got to America Sophia had another daughter and they named her Anna Maria. I found Mary Ann living in a boarding house in 1850, she was 18. Soon after this she met and married a Mr. Rupert, I have never found anything about him. On September 18, 1858 Robert Osborn Rupert was born in Brooklyn, NY. Shortly after a sister, Elizabeth Rupert was born. I do not have any information about other than her nickname was Libby. She married a man with the last name of Cox they had 2 children, Rupert(whom they called Purty) and Lewis.

Robert Osborn Rupert married Kathryn Leighton Phillips born in Jersey City, NJ on June 3rd, 1859, on June 3, 1884 in Brooklyn, NY. Robert was born at 158 High Street in Brooklyn.

They had a son, Robert Osborn Rupert, Jr on August 6, 1885. Sometime after this the family moved to Indianapolis, IN. Robert married my Great Grandmother, Hazel Fern Trees b. in Warrington, In October 25, 1889 on March 6, 1909 in Indianapolis, IN. They had 2 children. Winifred Jeanette Rupert was born January 16, 1910 and Robert Theodore “Ted” Rupert born June 6, 1911.

The original Robert Osborn that came from England died September 21, 1854, he is buried in Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn NY. he was living at 266 8th Avenue, New York He died of Bilious Fever.

Sophia married a Tunstill sometime after Robert died. She was living at 70 Jackson Street, Brooklyn, NY. She died July 4th 1888 and is buried at Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn, NY.

Mary Ann Osborn Rupert ended up marrying a Ewing. She died December 15, 1886 and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery. Her last known address was 268 Nostrand Ave., Brooklyn, NY.

The rest of the family all lived out their lives and died in Indianapolis. Except for Anna Maria, she married a Leonard Huking. They are both buried in Greenwood Cemetery. Anna had all her Osborn Family buried in her mother-in-law’s lot.

If you have ancestors living in Brooklyn in the 1800’s there is a good chance they are living in Red Hook. This ship building and dock community provided jobs to many poor Irish immigrants including my own ancestors.

The name of Red Hook originates from the Dutch “Roode Hoek” meaning “Red Point” for the Red clay that covered the area.

Street Names

Beard St.

– Irish Immigrant William Beard lived 1806-1886 and created the Erie Basin. The Beard St Warehouse built in 1869 still stands today. Beards son was Colonel William Beard (1839-1893) was one of the wealthiest men in Brooklyn and a big supporter of the republican party.

Coffey St.

– Named after Michael Joseph Coffey (1839- 1907). District leader of the 12th Ward, later became alderman and state senator. Coffey was so popular that supporters called the Twelfth Ward “Coffeyville” an Partition St was renamed Coffey St. in his honor.

Conover St.

– John Conover was an 18th century land owner

Dikeman St.

– One of earliest families to settle in the Hook. Judge John Dikeman (1794-1879) was author of the 1870 manuscript “The Brooklyn Compendium” and the long time oldest surviving member of the Kings county Bar.

Luquer St.

– The “Luqueer” family were a major landowners. Abraham Luqueer (1739-1823) and his son Nicholas was a wealthy Mill owner whose mill stood at Huntington and Hicks streets. They, along with the Van Dyke Brothers controlled good portion of Twelfth Ward.

Richards St.

– Col. Daniel Richards was a leading developer in south Brooklyn in mid 18th century, developed Atlantic Docks and Atlantic Basin as well as Warehouses, factories and first grain elevator in the area.

Van Brunt St.

– The Van Brunt name in Brooklyn extends back to Dutch Slave holding family headed by Rutgert Joesten Van Brunt. A Century later his descendent, another Rutgert Van Brunt was a member of the New York State Assembly for the years 1783 – 1784.

Van Dyke St.

– Jan Thomasse Van Dyke was an Dutch Settler who settled in Brooklyn in 1640. His descendents Thomas and Nicholas Van Dyke were major property owners until they were both dead in 1834.

Wolcott St.

– Oliver Wolcott, lived from 1726 -1797, was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, Delegate to Continental Congress, Brigadier General and Governor of Connecticut. His son, Oliver Walcott Jr. succeeded Alexander Hamilton as secretary of the Treasury.

The Bowery Boys

A great podcast by The Bowery Boys outlines much of Red Hook’s history in this fantastic audio presentation.

The “Coney Island Express” Family Photo Mystery

A few year’s ago I was able to locate surviving family members of a recently discovered branch of my grandfathers side of the family. From that came the above photo, with names written on the back, passed down to a distant cousin from a cousin of my grandfather to her daughter.

Attempting To Date An Old Photo

First off, this photo is a goldmine for me as it is the one and only photo I have ever seen of my great grandfather William “Billy Murray”, the shorter man on the left side of this photo. When trying to place a date on this photo I had several clues, mostly surrounding the apparent age of the people in the photo.

First we have William Murray born 1883. Next, his brothers widow Margaret, born 1884, Margaret’s sister, Pauline, born 1882 and Pauline’s husband, John, born 1878.

Next, I need to know the years this subway car would be in service and available to have a photo taken on it. That is when I found this incredible photography blog, from which I learned that this train was subway car #983, built by The American Car & Foundry Co in 1935.

Clue #3 in this case is that fact that my great grandfather passed away in September of 1937. Assuming the car was not in service during a summer until 1936, that gives me the window of 1936 or 1937. This make the approximate ages of these folks to be 53, 52, 54 and 58. They somehow all look younger then that to me.

Coney Island History

Although I do not believe the photo is taken upon the actual train car, I do imagine that the new car to Coney Island would have been a big deal, and I have to assume this canvas backdrop behind a railing would have been the type of thing that families would get a photo on the same way families might have a photo taken at a staged setting in a modern amusement park. This type of thing would probably be staged by some local photo studio, so if anybody happens to have any info on that, I would be interested in hearing it.

The Marriage Certificate of Garner Mayes and Judith Morris in Amelia County, Virginia, 1789.

Translating Handwriting

There comes a time in every genealogy case in which a researcher will need to translate, or decipher some unrecognizable handwriting on a document. The first time is a shock – you go through all the trouble and the time it takes to track down that marriage certificate, or that death certificate that you desperately need. When it shows up in the mail after a long wait, you open the envelope and when you finally lay eyes on the document, it appears to be written in hieroglyphics.

Closing in on 10,000 followers to our @BklynAncestry twitter account gives us a lot of help when we have a problem like this. 10,000 sets of eyes are better than 1. This document needs some of those eyes to decipher it. I am going to fill in the words I believe the document says. Garner Mayes and Judith Morris are definitely the names of those involved. unfortunately the right side of the document is not part of the photo.

Know all men by these presents that — Garner Mayes

John Gill Craddock______– — ————

—– —– Beverly ——- Governor of Virginia

the sum of fifty pounds —– money of Virginia

the which payment will and —- to be ———

our ————————————————–

then ——— sealed with our seal and dated this 5 day

July_____1789

Whereas a marriage is shortly intended to be ——–

—– between Garner Mayes and Judith

Morris

The condition of the above obligation is such that if

—- ——- —- to obstruct the —- Marriage then

the above obligation to be void otherwise to remain in —

— and —-

Sealed and Delivered__________________Garner Mayes

In Presence of _______________________ John Craddock

At this time the mystery has been solved in the comments.

1917 Marriage Certificate from NY

In the next document is an example of the exact opposite. In this certificate I know everything except for the names or the grooms Parents. I know the groom is a Toy Maker from Cadiz, Spain. The name of his father and mother are not so clear cut. What do you all think?

Are you one of those people who have spent hours on end looking for your ancestors? Or are you just close to your family?

Swedish artist and illustrator Anna Murgia

Swedish artist and illustrator Anna Murgia at Genea Murgia can help you put together your family information into a beautiful family tree to hang on your wall. Imagine a gorgeous, hand-painted tree, printed on high quality canvas or artist paper, with illustrations and photographs from your family’s history. Preserve your history and turn your family saga into a beautiful tree! The painting will become a lovely complement to your family saga, and is made uniquely for your family. It’s a magnificent gift, a family heirloom for yourself and/or someone you hold dear – you can order more than one copy of your family tree. It will also be a living tree, as it is easily updated when your family grows, or you find new ancestors.

You can locate the cemetery your ancestor is buried in from their Death Certificate. Contact our genealogist if you have decided you need our help, or if you just don’t want to waste time trying to put all the pieces together.

Free Genealogy resources with paid Genealogy Service available.

Hire a Genealogist

Everybody owes it to their ancestors to honor the sacrifices they made by learning their stories. Contact us with the family information you have, and be amazed at the documents and stories we can supply to you.

If you want to do your own research, the resources on this site will get you started.